Settler colonial recreation: Austin Nunis, Managing With Land: Embracing Blackfoot Systems of Belief as a Catalyst for Post-Colonial Conservation in Glacier National Park, graduate dissertation, University of Oregon, 2023 | settler colonial studies blog

Settler colonial recreation: Austin Nunis, Managing With Land: Embracing Blackfoot Systems of Belief as a Catalyst for Post-Colonial Conservation in Glacier National Park, graduate dissertation, University of Oregon, 2023

23Aug23

Abstract: Though conservation and preservation are inherently “positive” movements with beneficial results to individuals, outdoor spaces, and entire ecosystems, their roots may be entrenched in settler colonial values. This deep connection continues to influence contemporary and future land management initiatives, its breadth rendering Indigenous populations collateral damage to outdoor recreation. This thesis specifically explores the relation of settler colonial theory in shaping Glacier National Park, and how this history eclipsed conservation strategies and beliefs of the Blackfoot Confederacy to ultimately erode their connection to their ancestral homeland. In a broad sense this project aims to distinguish between land management and managing with land, a distinction necessary to create a more robust foundation for anthropogenic interaction with the more than human world. Understanding what land management and conservation mean to the National Park Service and the Blackfoot people respectively will help to promote initiatives such as co-management and circular conservation strategies centered around relation to land instead of recreation-based profit. At its core, this project discusses the influence that settler colonialism has on dominant western conservation ideology and explores alternative avenues of recentering Indigenous systems of belief and conservation strategies to create a more inclusive land management framework moving forward.

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